The present invention relates generally to a transmission apparatus and method, a reception apparatus and method, a management apparatus and method, a charging apparatus and method, a providing apparatus and method, and a recording medium. More particularly, the present invention relates to a transmission apparatus and method, a reception apparatus and method, a management apparatus and method, a charging apparatus and method, a providing apparatus and method, and a recording medium which are suitably for use in distribution and sale of content data for example via information communication media.
Currently, services are being practiced in which digital content data such as news, video data, music, and games are distributed and sold via networks like public switched lines and the Internet. Purchasers of these digital content data must pay two kinds of fees, data communication fee and content fee, separately as shown in FIG. 1.
The volume of the data communication fee is determined depending on an volume of data (or the number of packets) communicated or a time spent for the data communication.
The unit of content fee setting is one piece of digital content data. In this unit, each content fee is determined by considering the attributes of the digital content data, namely type (AV data, still picture data, text data, etc.), quality (compression scheme, transfer rate, etc.), data freshness (new version, old version, brand, etc.), usage conditions (the number of times used, duration of time used, etc.), and copyright information (copy free, copy protected, etc.)
However, the payment of two kinds of fees for purchased digital content data presents a problem that, for users who want to use only part of particular digital content data, the content fee setting system must be divided into segments.